The Ardennes: the forest surrounding Bastogne, Belgium and a critical battle location during World War II, wherein the endurance, perseverance, trust and sheer stubbornness of the Allies defeated a seemingly unbeatable enemy. For me, an allegory for the Christian life.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

The Finishing Touch

For me, the nursery has been the symbol along the way of what's going on in our baby story. In North Carolina, we put it together as a symbol of hope. For two years, the babies of our friends and neighbors inhabited that room. They used the crib, played with the toys and christened the changing table with various gifts. But we left North Carolina having never filled it with our own baby. Taking down that nursery felt like a defeat. Would it ever really happen? Moving was a time snag in our adoption and gave us serious second thoughts about how long we were willing to persevere.

When we unpacked here, we relegated everything labeled "nursery" or "baby" to the basement storage room. It was too soon after the disappointment to set up that room in the new house. However, as months went by and the adoption process here moved quickly, putting us back on the waiting list within two months of our move, I started taking little steps of hope. Taking down wallpaper, painting over the pink and starting to think about what I'd do to finish it up when (and still if) the time came.

When we got news of a possible adoption in December, I decided to go ahead and take the chance. I know a lot of people would've waited, avoiding the disappointment if it fell through. For me, though, God had used those months of a multi-purpose guest room to heal me a little. The idea of putting together the nursery in a big stand of hope was too appealing. I got out the staple gun, I scoured Josh's books for fun ideas and it came together.

Except for one thing.

The name. I loved having Josh's name on the wall in our first nursery in Virginia. I knew I wanted to be able to put this baby's name up on the wall here. I also knew that doing that before he came home was more of a risk than I could take and, to be honest, we didn't know his name yet. Would we keep his birth name as his first name? Rename him and have that be his middle? And we still had yet to whittle down a list of twelve boy names to one. That didn't happen until the final two days before the adoption.

And then he came home. Our Nathaniel Jaceyon. And in these early weeks of snuggles and midnight feedings and learning who he is, the last thing I could manage in a day was a crafty project to finally finish up that room. And the big blank wall remained.

Until last week, that is, when he decided he'd like to start napping regularly in the mornings for me. So, without further ado, I present to you the finishing touch.

The room has it's name. It is finally done.

For those who are interested, here is how I did it.

HOW TO MAKE HANGING LETTERS

Here is a step-by-step of how I did this:

(1) Pick out letters at your local craft store. Mine came with a light coat of white, but I brightened them up with two coats of a glossier white.

(2) I chose to edge the letters so they'd pop off the wall more. I used a navy blue to match the decor of the rest of the room. I needed to touch up some white along the edges where the blue had spilled over a little.

(3) I picked out some complementary ribbon and hot glued it to the back of the letters, measuring carefully so they will all hang at the same distance.

(4) I took four metal washers and covered the hole on the back with a small piece of cardboard. I then cut a piece of the material I used for one of the canvases in the room and covered the front of each washer.

(5) Then I used modge podge to make it look like a shiny knob.

(6) I hot glued the nails to the little piece of cardboard on the back of the washer knobs.

(7) Then we hung them up over the crib! We used a plain nail to first make the holes and then put these in. I didn't want to hammer the washers.